The Face Behind the Mask
by CyberHell
Summary: Elnathan is always wearing the gas mask whenever he step out from the lab. And the only person he had ever shown his face to is to his little brother. Could Einhardt persuade the Biochemist to take the mask off in front of him? One-shot shounen-ai.


**Disclaimer:** Ragnarok Online is not mine and this story doesn't have anything to do with RO manga. Though I created these two characters in RO servers XD

Before you starts reading, there are some notes that I need to bring up first. Each RO servers have different names for monsters, items, jobs and classes, skills, etc. And to prevent confusion Creator is actually called Biochemist in iRO.

A little info

Elnathan Synn - Biochemist ::uke::

Edward Synn - Biochemist

Einhardt Tyre - Lord Knight ::seme::

::Yes I like older uke better lol!::

This story contains a shounen-ai theme, if you don't like it please don't read it. And English is not my first language, so you might find a lot of grammar mistakes in my writings. But hopefully its still readable. Anyway, enjoy XD

--

**The Face Behind the Mask**

--

The Creator slammed his hands onto the table loudly. The experiment failed, again. Elnathan quickly looked through his notes again to check whether he missed something. Based on his calculations, the experiment should work perfectly fine.

Frustrated, he tossed the failed experiment aside and slumped onto the chair. "What did I do wrong? Did I make some mistake with the ingredients?" Elnathan sighed and rubbed the back of his neck and thumped his head against the wall a bit.

Elnathan been awake for few days. His usually tidy-combed long brown hair were all over the place and his eyes were red. As he stopped thumping his head, he took one of his hand to touch the scar on his right cheek.

The accident was still fresh in his mind and he couldn't forgive himself. Because of his mistake in one of the experiment, he almost hurt his little brother, Edward. He hadn't careful enough even though Elnathan knew doing Alchemist was really dangerous. And it almost took someone he cared for the most.

A soft knock on the door brought Nathan back to reality. The creator quickly snatched the gas-mask he always wore whenever he went outside. After he put the mask on, he called out. "Who is it?" His voice sounded raspy and hoarse when the mask was on. Just the way he wanted for no one to recognize him from his voice.

"Its me." Elnathan was greeted by a familiar voice. "There's something that I want to talk about."

The creator was hesitant to let the guest in as he knew his work wont be finished on time whenever the Lord Knight was around. "Can't you see I'm busy. Come back another time will you." He said as he walked away from the door, trying to ignore the guest.

"Wha--Hey, don't you leave me here outside like this!" Einhardt started to bang his fist against the door, creating ruckus that gained everyone's attention. And he knew, the creator hate attention.

With a leap, Elnathan grabbed the door handle and opened the door so suddenly that the Lord Knight unceremoniously falling inside and stopped pounding. "Whoa!" Secretly, Nathan couldn't stop to crack a smile behind his mask as he watched the man crashed lamely.

The creator calmly closed the door when the guest was in. "If you ever do that again, I won't hold myself back and kill you." Elnathan said with a tone that send a clear message that he was not amused by what Einhardt had done.

Feeling unthreatened by Elnathan's word, Einhardt chuckled and pushed himself up. He took his fallen corsair to dust it off. The blue Lord Knight grinned and bowed slightly at the angry creator. "Well, that's the only way I could think of for you to let me in here."

Elnathan sighed loudly and he could feel the tiredness that he had forgotten when he was working on the experiment. His body felt so heavy and his head was spinning. As if the other man was anticipated what going to happen, Einhardt grabbed onto the Creator's arm to prevent him falling onto the floor.

"Hell, man. Have you eaten anything yet? You feel boney under these layers of clothing!"

Truthfully, Elnathan couldn't remember when was the last time he left the place to get something to eat. He ended up staring at the other man's face, speechless.

"Come on, you must be drowning yourself in your experiments again." Einhardt huffed as he dragged the creator easily due to their difference in their body built. Elnathan Synn was never made for battle. He was a support player who stood behind his party to give them chemical protections or aid them with his acid demo on the enemy. And for a man his age, he was quite small and thin (making him almost feminine if not for his voice).

As a Lord Knight, it was his job to aid his party in the front line. Einhardt did battle after battle with his spear almost every day which only natural his body grew stronger each days to wield his weapon. Even Elnathan knew how those muscle ripple underneath the heavy armory. And he was taller too, taller a few inches from Edward (who was taller from Elnathan more than a few inches). And not to mention that he rode that Peco peco all day made Einhardt skin tanned by the sun.

"Hey, are you listening?" A snap of finger right in front of his masked face brought Elnathan's attention back to the Lord Knight.

"W-wha…?" He didn't believe he'd been staring at the other man's body. He was glad that he wore the mask, at least Einhardt won't notice his staring.

"Did you just leave me and went to the dream land in your head?" The Lord Knight joked as he grabbed a chair nearby and let the creator sat.

Elnathan let out an audible scoff and looked away. "Don't be silly. I was just thinking…"

"Na-ah. No, enough with the thinking. You'll grow bald if you kept thinking too hard." Einhardt grinned as he managed to get the creator's attention again. He guessed Elnathan must been glaring at him behind that mask. "I was asking, have you eaten some lunch yet?"

The question took Elnathan back a bit. "…n-No?"

"Damn, you should take care of yourself more man. Look outside, its almost noon already. Lets get you a lunch-soon-to-be-dinner." He grabbed Elnathan's hand and dragged him out from the lab. The creator gave up to argue and let himself being drag around the town.

After a few turns and buildings, the reached a casual diner. Without giving the smaller man a chance to speak, Einhardt dragged him in and asked for a table for two right on the corner of the place.

They sat down across each other with Einhardt against the wall and Elnathan's back facing the crowd. The creator sweatdropped at his own decision to follow the Lord Knight to eat outside. How could he possibly eat something with his gas mask on. It had became a dilemma.

"Hey, relax man." Einhardt commented with a gentle pat on the creator's shoulder. "There's a reason why I choose to take you to this place." He added with a wide grin. "I've noticed that you never ate in an open place instead in your lab and only Ed were allowed to eat with you. And you always wear that ridiculous gas mask."

Elnathan frowned at the Lord Knight's words. "This mask is not ridicul--," Before he could finish his sentence, Einhardt grabbed a hold of his chin and brought their faces closer. Elnathan could feel his face explode with blush and his body's temperature started to rise.

"Well maybe its not ridiculous to you, but why would you hide your face from your _date_?" The Lord Knight chuckled as he felt the other man stiffened as he mentioned about being his 'date'.

The creator smacked the offending hand off from him and barked out, "Stop playing stupid joke on me, Einhardt Tyre!" Elnathan's loudness drew the crowd's eyes and almost all conversations inside the place stopped as they tried to find out what had happened.

The creator pushed the chair back roughly and as he was about to turn around to leave, a hand grabbed his hand to stop Elnathan from leaving. "Look, I'm sorry, I really am." The smugness on the Lord Knight was changed by a seriousness. "Please. Can you spend a night to have dinner with me? My treat."

Elnathan stopped death on his track. He stared at the Lord Knight's face to find anything that proved that to be another kind of joke. Yet he found nothing and the seriousness never left Einhardt's expression. Quietly, the creator sat back down on the chair and the crowd went back to mind their own business.

Elnathan still giving the other man an accusing stare and he made sure he got it as he stayed quiet on his seat. The silence was pretty awkward and Einhardt didn't know how to break it. The Lord Knight took off his corsair to ruffled his own short-spiky black hair.

"Maybe I'll use this time to tell you exactly how I feel. Since its so rare for us to stay together like this, with no Ed around that is." Einhardt said with a slight cough of embarrassment.

Elnathan tilted his head a bit. He remembered how Einhardt and Edward always together. Whenever Edward came to visit him, Einhardt would always be there to tag along. And now seeing only one of the pairs present without the other, it confused him.

"Come to think of it, you're always with my little brother, Einhardt… Is something wrong with him?" He asked worriedly.

"Well, Ed still alive and kicking if that what you want to know." The Lord Knight replied sheepishly. "And soon he gonna kick my ass later for hiding his axe..."

Elnathan's eyes grew bigger and snorted, "You hid his axe?" An unexpected laugh came from the creator. "Dear me, he'll feel really insecure without his beloved axe. Is that why he didn't come with you today, looking for his axe?" Elnathan couldn't stop his laughter.

The Lord Knight blinked at the laughing creator as if he had never seen someone laughed before. The laugh made the creator sounded more younger than his real age.

Taking his chance, Einhardt tried to pursuade the older man to take off the mask again. "I'll tell you in details later. But first, just for tonight… Take your mask off?"

The laughter slowly turned down to a fit of quiet chuckle then to nothing. Einhardt mentally kicked himself because he just ruined another good mood with his stupid curiousness. "b-But you know, maybe we should take out some of the food instead indeed. There's no use to force yourself if you're feeling uncomfortable--"

The Lord Knight stopped talking immediately as a soft click reached Einhardt's ear. He watched the creator raised his hands and reached for the clasp behind his head to open the mask. Einhardt's heart was threatening to pound out of his ribcage as Elnathan slowly take off his gas mask. The mask that always separating him to who the real creator was.

Elnathan squinted slightly as the light from the diner reached his eyes. Though he noticed that the place was actually dimly lit. He took off the mask completely and put the unused headgear down on the table. The creator felt so nervous now. Many people who had seen him without the mask freaked out because of the scar. Elnathan started to fidget on his seat as he waited for the Lord Knight's reaction.

Few seconds had passed and the Lord Knight hadn't said or retort anything yet about his feature. Given himself some courage, Elnathan forced himself to look up and made eye contact with Einhardt. He was puzzled as he saw the smug Lord Knight left gaping like a fish out of the water.

A slight pain pang inside Elnathan's chest. He didn't understand why he felt that way when he saw the Lord Knight's reaction. He regretted his choice to let the other man see his scarred face. "I-It's ugly, r-right?" Elnathan tried his best to speak normally yet the stutter in his voice gave him away.

He felt so foolish to believe that Einhardt would accept him or even talked to him after he showed the Lord Knight his face. "I guess I should be going…" A hand stopped Elnathan's hand from reaching for the mask. The creator blushed slightly at the skin contact and looked up again with uncertainty.

"N-no." Now it was the Lord Knight's turn to blush. "You aren't ugly, you looks beautiful tonight." Einhardt said as his ears started to turn red as well from embarrassment. "Not that I'm saying you're like a woman, but you're so damn beautiful. More beautiful than those women-- oh fuck, what the hell am I saying." The Lord Knight head-desked himself.

The creator stared blankly at Einhardt. He never ever seen the Lord Knight lose his cool like this. Elnathan gaped back at the other man. "Wha- Don't act blind, Einhardt. I know you can see my face that clearly under this dim light."

"I can see you clearly, yes. Damn why would you hide your pretty face from me?" Elnathan frown deepened when the Lord Knight seemed to avoid the subject. Before he could say anything, Einhardt started. "Edward told me about everything. On what happened, how you got the scar and how you saved his life."

The creator was left speechless once again. "Then why are you so persistent for me to take off my mask if you already knew?"

Einhardt squeezed Elnathan's hand gently and smiled softly. "Because I want to see the savior's of my best friend face with my own eyes. And its true, being patient is really worth it." The Lord Knight chuckled a bit.

"And one more thing…" Einhardt took the creator's hand and clasped it with both of his hands. "Elnathan Synn. I've been admiring you for such a long time. Will you go out with me?"

The proposal sounded so unreal in Elnathan's ears. It had been a while since he was in relationship with someone. After the accident, he tend to shun himself away from the public and society. "I-I…" He didn't know what to say to the Lord Knight.

"Well, would you?" The sparks in Einhardt's eyes made the creator couldn't say no. Unable to give out straight answer, Elnathan quickly sputtered, "I-if you could survive Edward after he found his axe, then I'll consider going out with you!"

With that, Elnathan snatched the book of menu up and scanned through the list of food the diner had. He ignored the complaint that the Lord Knight have for his reply. Unknown to Einhardt, the creator was smiling brightly and happily behind the menu.

--

_End_

_--_

**A/N:** Wow, I didn't think this one-shot would be this long lol. The title and the ending sounded so cheesy… but I don't know what else should I write lol ::head desks:: These two characters can be found either in bRO or dRO.

Anyway, review please X3


End file.
